PBS NewsHour: Science & Technology Archive | 2012

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	2012 MAY May 25, 2012 Are U.S. Nuclear Plants Ready for a Fukushima-Like Meltdown? When Chairman Gregory Jaczko resigned from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week, reports suggested it was linked to battles within the commission over safety requirements. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Miles O'Brien reports on how government regulators in the U.S. set the safety bar for nuclear plants.

	May 25, 2012 News Wrap: International Space Station Grasps SpaceX 'Dragon' Capsule In other news Friday, the unmanned SpaceX "Dragon" spacecraft was captured by the International Space Station's robot arm in a rendezvous high over Australia. In Syria, anti-government activists reported an army assault killed at least 50 people in the central part of the country.

	May 25, 2012 International Space Station Catches 'Dragon by the Tail' "Looks like we've got us a dragon by the tail," announced NASA astronaut Don Pettit as the International Space Station's robotic arm reached out and grabbed the SpaceX Dragon capsule Friday morning.

	May 24, 2012 How the Nuclear Bomb Gave Us the Computer "Turing's Cathedral" author George Dyson tells Hari Sreenivasan how the creation of the hydrogen bomb gave us the modern computer.

	May 23, 2012 As Golden Gate Bridge Turns 75, History Revised to Honor Engineer The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic on May 27, 1937. This weekend, 75 years later, San Francisco plans to celebrate while honoring the engineer whose contributions to the design were purposefully obliterated: Charles Ellis. Spencer Michels delves into Ellis' story, and into the man who did get the credit -- Joseph Strauss.

	May 22, 2012 A Year After Joplin's Tornado, Disaster's 'Immensity' Still a Challenge One year ago, a tornado packing 200 mph winds tore through the city of Joplin, Mo., killing 161 people and destroying 8,000 buildings -- including many homes. Gwen Ifill and businesswoman Jane Cage, who leads the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team, discuss life in Joplin now and down the road.

	May 22, 2012 SpaceX Blasts Into 'Uncharted Territory,' Hoping to Make Space Cheaper After several delays -- including a last-second abort on Saturday when computers spotted a bad engine valve, Space Explorations Technologies Corporation on Tuesday became the first private company to send a vessel to the International Space Station. Jeffrey Brown and Miles O'Brien discuss the significance of the SpaceX launch.

	May 22, 2012 Miles O'Brien on SpaceX Launch: Space for the Rest of Us Space is hard and unforgiving and there is still a lot of challenging work ahead for the SpaceX Dragon team. But this is a moment to savor.

	May 21, 2012 Mapping Alligator Genomes Is Risky Business Collecting DNA samples isn't easy when your subject could snap off your hand with one bite, but it's a risk David Ray -- a researcher at Mississippi State University -- and his team are willing to take, as they wrestle alligators and crocodiles in hopes of finding answers in these animals' genes.

	May 18, 2012 'The Information Diet': Should Americans Exercise More 'Conscious Consumption'? Clay Johnson, author of "The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption", discusses with Hari Sreenivasan how abundant technology affects our health -- producing pulsing side effects such as "email apnea" or "reality dysmorphia."

	May 18, 2012 The Rise of Facebook Founded in 2005, Facebook's social network has changed our relationships with friends, family and co-workers, created a new playground for politics, and altered the rules for media, culture and advertising. This timeline chronicles the evolution of the social media giant.

	May 17, 2012 SpaceX Readies for Historic Launch On Saturday, if all goes as planned, the privately owned spaceflight company SpaceX will launch its Dragon capsule into low-Earth orbit and three days later dock with the International Space Station.

	May 16, 2012 The Future of Prosthetics: Mind-Bending Robotic Arms Researchers have shown that patients paralyzed from the neck down can move robotic arms with their minds, according to a new report in the journal Nature that documents two cases involving brain-stem stroke victims. Margaret Warner discusses the hopes for the technology with Dr. Leigh Hochberg of Massachusetts General Hospital.

	May 16, 2012 Paralyzed Woman Powers Robotic Arm With Her Mind On April 12, 2011, a 59-year-old woman with a sensor implanted in her brain picked up her cinnamon latte with a robotic arm, brought it to her lips and took a sip through a straw, using only her thoughts.

	May 14, 2012 The Veins of a Leaf: Revealing Nature's Mathematical System The veins of a leaf are key to its structure. Mathematical physicists at Rockefeller University use fluorescent dye and time lapse photography to study microscopic patterns within these veins to better understand how nutrients flow through the leaf and into the plant's cells. Miles O'Brien reports for the latest Science Nation.

	May 10, 2012 Chimpanzee Testing: Is it the Beginning of the End? Medical experiments on chimpanzees can be invasive, involving injections, blood samples and liver biopsies. But some say it's the only way to advance medicine. Miles O'Brien's report explores whether there are ever instances in which the scientific value of research should offset the moral cost of working with chimps.

	May 10, 2012 'Oops Babies' Sired by Twice-Vasectomized Chimp Despite a strict no-breeding rule and extreme efforts to stop it, the chimps are having accidental babies. Tracy was born five years ago. And this Valentine's Day, 29-year-old Flora was found nursing a newborn chimp. The births occurred even though all males in the group were vasectomized - some twice.

	May 8, 2012 Breathalyzer Detects Diseases From Diabetes to Cancer Scientists at Stony Brook University have developed a breathalyzer with a sensor chip that can detect diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol and lung cancer. The sensor is coated with tiny nanowires capable of isolating biomarkers -- chemical compounds in the breath that signal disease.

	May 7, 2012 Incredible, Edible Bugs: Will Meals of Mealworms Catch on in U.S.? Most Americans would squirm when even thinking of eating a grasshopper or locust. But a movement is afoot to encourage insect eating with advocates praising bugs' low fat and high protein. Spencer Michels tasted wax moth larvae tacos and crispy mealworms over ice cream to prepare this report on efforts to put bugs on U.S. menus.

	May 7, 2012 Bugs for Dinner? Join the Rest of the World Many Americans would squirm when thinking of eating an insect. But a fledgling movement praising insects' health benefits and low environmental impact is encouraging Americans to swap steak sandwiches for salted crickets tostadita.

	May 3, 2012 SpaceX Boldly Looks to Blast 'Millions of People to Mars' With the space shuttle era now over and U.S. space flight on the verge of going private for the near future, the company behind the so-called SpaceX project has ambitious plans to make space flight cheaper for cargo and for humans, with a bold idea to send millions of people to Mars. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports.

	May 3, 2012 Are You Smarter Than a 10th Grader on Climate Change? Think you understand climate science better than the average American teen? On the PBS NewsHour this week we've been focusing on how climate change is taught in the classroom.

	May 2, 2012 Black Hole Rips Star To Shreds, Then Swallows It Computer simulation shows a star being shredded by the gravity of a massive black hole and ejecting the debris at high speeds.

	May 2, 2012 Join a Live Chat Thursday: How Do You Teach Climate Change in the Classroom? For the first time, national science standards will include guidelines on how to teach climate change -- but how will teachers incorporate the subject into the curriculum? Watch the broadcast segment on Wednesday's NewsHour and then join Hari Sreenivasan on Thursday at 5 p.m. ET for a live chat on the topic.

	May 1, 2012 'Liquid Bandages' Could Help Re-Grow Skin, Save Lives Dr. Mark Carlson of Nebraska Surgical Research is developing a liquid bandage to stop bleeding quickly and potentially save lives in battlefield situations while also aiding future regenerative possibilities. This report was a collaboration with NET Nebraska and KQED San Francisco's Quest science program.

	May 1, 2012 Climate In The Classroom: Teachers Share Their Stories This week, the PBS NewsHour will report on one teacher's struggles to teach climate change in her Colorado classroom. We asked teachers and educators to share their experiences handling the subject in their schools.

	May 1, 2012 Transparency or Bust: Riding a Hacker Bus to Change Brazil Known in Portuguese as "Transparencia Hacker," the Sao Paulo-based activist group stresses it's not a typical "hacking" organization but one that uses public data to reach its aims.



	APRIL April 30, 2012 Tiny 3-D Structures Assemble with Remarkable Precision Miles O'Brien reports on a team of scientists at Johns Hopkins University who are developing self-assembling, three-dimensional nanostructures to be used for targeted drug delivery.

	April 26, 2012 Bridging the Gender Gap: Why More Women Aren't Computer Scientists, Engineers "If you completely shut out the entire feminine perspective on the world," says Maria Klawe of Harvey Mudd College, "you're going to have a different set of products." Judy Woodruff and Klawe discuss why more women aren't pursuing careers in hard sciences, and Klawe's plans to bridge the gaps in engineering and computer science.

	April 26, 2012 What We Lose By Losing Women in the Hard Sciences Experts have struggled for years to understand what's keeping more women from entering physics, engineering and computer science. Judy Woodruff interviews Maria Klawe from Harvey Mudd College on the subject.

	April 25, 2012 Why Engineering, Science Gender Gap Persists Why are engineers and computer scientists overwhelmingly male? We take a look at the gender gap among women in the sciences.

	April 24, 2012 Live Chat: Why Aren't There More Female Scientists and Engineers? This week on the NewsHour, we take a look at why more women aren't pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics , with reports beginning Wednesday online and on the broadcast.

	April 24, 2012 Baby Dolphin Die-Offs Continue in the Gulf An unusually high number of dead dolphins - including stillborn and infant calves - have washed up along the Gulf of Mexico shores in the two years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded into flames, unleashing tens of thousands of barrels of oil into the ocean.

	April 23, 2012 Geoscientist Bungee Jumps to Imitate Shifting Climate Richard Alley has taken an extreme leap - off a really high bridge - to demonstrate how drastically the Earth's climate is shifting.

	April 20, 2012 Gulf Still Grapples With Massive BP Oil Leak 2 Years Later Two years after the largest oil leak in U.S. history, the Gulf of Mexico region still struggles with its impact. Jeffrey Brown, David Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Garret Graves of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana discuss the state of the Gulf and related industries.

	April 19, 2012 Solar Suitcase Report Spurs Gifts to Aid Baby Deliveries in Developing World Correspondent Spencer Michels recently reported on the California nonprofit We Care Solar, which developed a "solar suitcase" to provide lights and communications equipment in delivery rooms and health care facilities in developing countries. Co-founder Dr. Laura Stachel reports that NewsHour viewers were quick to offer support.

	April 19, 2012 Infrared Camera Sees Through Stardust to the Edge of the Universe Space tornadoes, stellar nurseries, primitive galaxies - these are just a few of the dazzling images captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope since its 2003 launch.

	April 18, 2012 Space Tornadoes, Baby Stars, and Ancient Galaxies After a thousand days in space, the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope has sent back thousands of images of stars being born, space "tornadoes" and galaxies at the edge of the universe. To commemorate its voyage, the program has published ten of its favorite pictures that have come back from the telescope.

	April 18, 2012 Teen Reporter Investigates Cyberbullying Bullying through online platforms - known as cyberbullying - has gained increased national attention recently. Seventeen-year-old Amy reported on the issue for her school newspaper and shares tips to keep her and her peers safe online.

	April 17, 2012 Space Shuttle Discovery Draws Eyes to Sky for Final Flight NASA's space shuttle Discovery captivated people in and around the nation's capital Tuesday as it flew piggy-back on a 747 over the Capitol en route on its last landing at Dulles International Airport. Gwen Ifill and Valerie Neal, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, discuss its future as a museum piece.

	April 17, 2012 Miles O'Brien Reflects on Discovery's Last Flight, Space Shuttle Shortcomings Miles O'Brien reports on what Space Shuttle Discovery's final trip to retirement means for the Sunshine State. Also, the successes and shortcomings of the storied shuttle program, and what comes next for NASA.

	April 17, 2012 Space Shuttle Discovery's Final Flight In Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia, people pressed their faces against windows, parked along highways and squinted from rooftops to glimpse space shuttle Discovery circle above the district atop a modified 747 jumbo jet before making it's final descent into Dulles International Airport.

	April 16, 2012 Preventing a 'Cyber-Pearl Harbor' Government-funded DETERlab was built to bring established scientific principles to the field of cybersecurity in hopes of preventing successful cyber attacks on targets such as power grids, banks and train systems. Correspondent Tom Bearden reports on the project's hopes for a nation "wholly vulnerable" to such threats.

	April 16, 2012 How to Remove Yourself From Google Street View Google was fined by the Federal Communications Commission for hampering an investigation into the company's Street View data collection methods. Don't like your image on Street View? Hari Sreenivasan walks through tips on how to alert Google.

	April 16, 2012 DeterLab's Cyber 'Racetrack' Battles Computer Hackers California-based DeterLab was established to bring experimentation and verification to cyber security efforts, which often focus on reacting to threats rather than preventing them.

	April 12, 2012 Would a Major Earthquake Sink Portland or Seattle in Liquefied Soil? Though the impact of Wednesday's 5.9-magnitude earthquake off Oregon's coast was minimal, a lesser-known risk of temblors -- a phenomenon called liquefaction where sandy soil turns to liquid and loses its ability to support weight -- has some scientists worried. Tom Bearden reports what's being done to prepare for a major quake.

	April 12, 2012 Risky Business in the Pacific Northwest On Thursday's PBS NewsHour, Tom Bearden reports on efforts to better understand a phenomenon called liquefaction. When a powerful earthquake shakes a region, sandy soils can turn to liquid and lose their ability to support weight. Man-made structures built on such soils sag, slide sideways or sink into the ground.

	April 12, 2012 Six Feet Under Can Be Green for Eternity Today the number of green cemeteries across the country has grown to 36, with some 300 providers of green burial options. Natural burial eschews modern techniques for delaying decomposition and prohibits embalming fluids, formaldehyde. The body is placed in a simple shroud, a biodegradable casket or urn.

	April 11, 2012 Citizen Scientists Track Rain Drop by Drop The volunteer members of the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network or CoCoRaHS track precipitation around the country. They are "measuring like crazy" to get the National Weather Service and others the most accurate and up-to-date information, down to the last drop.

	April 9, 2012 Feeling the Heat: March Shattered Temperature Records Across U.S. This March was the warmest ever in the continental United States, measuring on average a staggering 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than normal, according to a report released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than 15,000 heat records were shattered across the country.

	April 9, 2012 Electric Knifefish Charged with Sixth Sense The weakly electric knifefish uses its electric field as a sixth sense - to communicate, navigate its murky surroundings and hunt prey. Mechanical engineer Noah Cowan of Johns Hopkins University explains that a small organ in the tail of the Ecuadorian fish generates an electric field, which then envelopes the animal.

	April 5, 2012 Slime Molds: No Brains, No Feet, No Problem Slime mold is not a plant or animal. It's not a fungus, though it sometimes resembles one. Slime mold, in fact, is a soil-dwelling amoeba, a brainless, single-celled organism, often containing multiple nuclei. Here's a look at this peculiar organism.

	April 4, 2012 Solar Suitcase: Saving Lives with Solar Power Dr. Laura Stachel and her husband founded We Care Solar to help bring light to the estimated 300,000 hospitals and clinics in the developing world that don't have reliable sources of electricity. Our slideshow highlights Stachel's work toward equipping remote clinics with solar suitcases that bring light to dark delivery rooms.

	April 3, 2012 Slime Molds, Revealed The slime mold takes on hundreds of shapes, sizes, and colors. Some varieties are the size of dinner plates, while others are only visible through a microscope.

	April 2, 2012 An Interactive History of the Texas Drought Our public media partners at StateImpact Texas have launched an interactive tool tracing the evolution of the ongoing Texas drought. The new tool allows you to explore the scope of the drought, the policy implications, and also share your own stories.

	April 2, 2012 Seeing Beyond the Visual Cortex Miles O'Brien reports on research that involves shooting a magnetic pulse straight into the visual cortex of a subject's brain, disabling that region and momentarily blinding the subject. Though "blind," in most cases, the subject can still correctly identify shapes flashed onto a computer screen, the study finds.



	MARCH March 29, 2012 Colo. Nonprofit Helps Quake Victims Rebuild With Better Techniques When a major earthquake strikes, workers with the American non-profit Build Change arrive in the affected area about two months later, once the emergency relief phase is over, to investigate damaged and destroyed buildings.

	March 29, 2012 The Dos and Don'ts of Earthquake-Resistant Construction Here are some tips on building a home that could withstand an earthquake.

	March 28, 2012 What a Cake Pan, Hairspray Taught Us About Earth's Ancient Atmosphere A study of fossilized raindrops preserved in volcanic ash concludes that the density of the atmosphere on Earth 2.7 billion years ago was similar to that of today, adding new information to a longstanding astrophysical paradox.

	March 27, 2012 Harnessing Supercomputers to Predict Tornadoes At the University of Oklahoma, scientists are designing a system that would predict where and when tornadoes will happen. The goal: to provide hours of warning time rather than minutes. Miles O'Brien reports for the National Science Foundation's latest Science Nation piece.

	March 26, 2012 James Cameron Descends 7 Miles Into Pacific Ocean's 'Desolate' Mariana Trench Shooting footage for a 3-D movie and a National Geographic special, filmmaker James Cameron journeyed to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, seven miles below the surface. Tom Clarke of Independent Television News reports on Cameron's deep dive to the Mariana Trench's Challenge Deep, 300 miles southwest of Guam.

	March 26, 2012 Spotting Venus, Lunar-Like Sub Dive, and Hitchhiking in Duck Guts Cameron's Historic Dive Cut Short by Leak; Few Signs of Life SeenA hydraulic fuel leak cut filmmaker James Cameron's dive to the deepest part of the ocean short, but he still plunged to nearly seven miles underwater.

	March 23, 2012 Before and After: Images of the Southwest Drought From Space The severe drought in Texas has left damage that could be seen from space. Satellite images from the United States Geological Survey and aerial photos show just how drastically the drought has altered the landscape of Texas and the American Southwest over time.

	March 23, 2012 Before and After: The Drought from Above The severe drought in Texas peaked in the summer of 2011, leaving damage that could be seen from space. Satellite images from the United States Geological Survey and aerial photos show just how drastically the drought has altered the landscape of Texas and the American Southwest over time, from dried up lakes to dead trees.

	March 22, 2012 Introducing the PBS NewsHour's Coping With Climate Change Page Our Coping with Climate Change page is here. As temperatures increase and weather patterns shift, we'll be exploring how communities are feeling the impact of climate change. You'll find video reports, blog posts, slide shows and interactive features. We start with Hari Sreenivasan's visit to two drought-stricken Texas towns.

	March 21, 2012 How Aspirin May Help Prevent Certain Kinds of Cancer A daily low dose of aspirin could potentially combat a variety of cancers, according to a series of studies published in the medical journal The Lancet. Ray Suarez discusses the studies and the health benefits and risks of aspirin with Harvard Medical School's Dr. Andrew Chan, who wrote a commentary on the studies.

	March 20, 2012 Two Texas Towns Run Out of Water In collaboration with StateImpact Texas, the PBS NewsHour takes a closer look at the struggle for water in two Texas towns and how the state plans to deal with a drier future. This report is part of our new series Coping with Climate Change.

	March 20, 2012 In Drought-Stricken Texas, Hunt for Water Heads Deeper Underground A year of severe drought has taken its tolls on the estimated 1 million water wells that stretch across Texas. The water table is depleted, and many of the wells are too shallow. And that means more drilling to tap the water deep underground. More in this video.

	March 20, 2012 Coping With Climate Change: Texas Water Woes The drought in Texas has put an unprecedented strain on the state's already tenuous water supply. In the face of continued climate uncertainty and a growing population, Texas communities face the stark reality of a future without enough water.

	March 19, 2012 Planning to Visit the Cherry Blossoms? Err on the Earlier Side Cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. have bloomed exceptionally early this year, but this is nothing compared to when they might be blooming decades from now. By 2080, cherry blossoms could reach their peak bloom as early as late February, according to Dr. Soo-Hyung Kim of the University of Washington. Hari Sreenivasan reports.

	March 19, 2012 Texas Dispatch: 'Cloud Juice' is One Man's Solution to the Drought In the Texas Hill Country, many rely on rainwater for domestic water needs. As the first of a series of pieces to run this week on the Texas drought, we look at a company that installs rainwater collection systems to residents in this water-parched state. This is part of our ongoing project, Coping with Climate Change.

	March 19, 2012 Sandfish Lizard Slithers into Science Spotlight A lizard may be key to finding survivors buried in rubble. The chiseled body and shovel-shaped head of the Sahara desert sandfish help the lizard slice and swim through sand. Engineers are studying this lizard's movements and building robots based on its physiology that could one day help search and rescue crews find survivors.

	March 19, 2012 Facebook, Twitter Not Dominating News Landscape Just Yet The importance of using social media to promote a news organization's journalism is pretty much a given in any newsroom these days, but as popular as Facebook and Twitter are, they do not seem to be driving as much traffic to news websites as one would think.

	March 15, 2012 Fukushima After the Meltdown How much is too much radiation, and why are Japanese authorities still grappling with that question? That's the subject of the latest blog from our science correspondent Miles O'Brien. We've compiled all of Miles reporting on the Japan quake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown on one easy-to-access page.

	March 15, 2012 Two Hopeful Signs for Americans with Disabilities As the mother of a son with disabilities, I try to keep an eye out for news that affects people in the large community of which he is a part. Today, I spotted two that can potentially spell positive news for the 30 million-plus Americans who have a disability.

	March 14, 2012 Report: NYC, Southern Calif. Among Big Targets of Accelerating Sea Level Rise Accelerated sea level rise from global warming has doubled the risk of extreme flooding events in many of the country's coastal communities, according to a new report released by research organization Climate Central. Ray Suarez and lead author Ben Strauss discuss the connections between climate change and severe flood threats.

	March 14, 2012 Will Your City Be Underwater? There's a Map for That Will your city or county be flooded by 2020? By 2050? Now there's a map for that. As many as 3.7 million U.S. residents in 2,150 coastal areas could be battered by damaging floods caused by global warming-induced storm surges, according to a new report published Wednesday in the journal Environment Research Letters.

	March 14, 2012 Tell Us Your Climate Change Stories A call to submit us your climate observations. Whether it's changes in plants, wildlife, garden insects, weather patterns, or something else entirely, we want to know what you've observed and how these changes have affected your life, regardless of what might be causing them.

	March 13, 2012 Fukushima's Food Fallout: Testing Groceries for Radiation in Japan Promoting produce from Fukushima, a Tokyo store lists the cesium levels beside the price -- just one way life has changed a year after an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident struck Japan. In the final report in his series, Miles O'Brien examines food-safety concerns and a cottage industry of testing groceries for radiation.

	March 12, 2012 In Oregon, Rare 'Snowstorm' of Pine Butterflies Takes Toll on Forests In Oregon's Malheur National Forest, pine butterflies experience a population explosion for two to three years every three decades. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon Field Guide series explores the snowstorm-like population surge that has stripped needles from 250,000 acres of trees.

	March 12, 2012 After 500 Years in Family, Rice Farmers Forced Off Land by Fukushima One year after an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, the country is still trying to recover and decontaminate land and buildings from partial meltdowns of three Fukushima nuclear reactors. In his second report from the region, science correspondent Miles O'Brien explores the challenges and possibilities of radiation cleanup.

	March 9, 2012 Fukushima Survivor: 'I've Hardly Smiled This Whole Year' Carl Pillitteri was one of 38 Americans at the Fukushima plant when the earthquake hit. Describing the "demonic" sounds he heard and the pit of fear he felt inside the turbine building that day, Pillteri recently spoke with Alex Chadwick, the host of the new American Public Media series "BURN: An Energy Journal."

	March 9, 2012 Near Fukushima, a Big 'Guessing Game' Over Radiation's Long-Term Risks Sunday marks a year since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, causing a partial meltdown of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plants. In the first report in a series on Japan's recovery, Miles O'Brien documents the country's cleanup attempts as scientists decide whether residual radiation could be potentially harmful.

	March 9, 2012 Tracking Japan's Tsunami Debris Although a year has passed since Japan's tsunami sucked tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continues to track the rubble and urges others to do so to help focus cleanup efforts.

	March 8, 2012 Oregon Farmers Surprised to Find Fish in Fields Researchers in Oregon's Willamette Valley found young native fish thriving in ditches that fill with water during the winter months. The unrecognized habitat meant farmers had been inadvertently raising fish in their fields, in addition to their intended crops, for years. This report first appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.

	March 8, 2012 Endangered Animals Say 'Cheese' for Nature Photographer For most portrait photographers, odds that subjects will defecate in front of them, rip their backdrops or charge at the camera tend to be low. But that's a regular day for photographer Joel Sartore, who is on a mission to photograph all of the roughly 6,000 captive species in the United States before some of them disappear.

	March 7, 2012 O No! Climate Change Shortens Canada's Pond Hockey Season In a paper published Monday, researchers determined that climate change across Canada has already had a negative impact on the outdoor skating season, and if that trend continues, the viability of outdoor skating in Canada will be threatened for future generations.

	March 6, 2012 Plants Boldly Go Where They've Never Gone Before Nationwide, gardeners are experimenting with newly assigned plant hardiness zones, using an updated USDA guide that shows which plants will survive the coldest temperatures in any region.

	March 5, 2012 Snow, Cold Hinder Midwest's Recovery Efforts After Tornadoes The National Weather Service confirmed 51 tornadoes across 11 states from Friday into early Saturday, from the Great Lakes spreading south of the Gulf Coast and as far east as Georgia and the Carolinas. Hari Sreenivasan reports on cleanup efforts in Indiana that have been slowed by Monday's snow and low temperatures.

	March 5, 2012 Hans Rosling Brings Life, Humor, Sword-Swallowing to Global Health Statistics Hans Rosling, co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation, visualizes global health trends and population numbers -- transforming dry poverty and development statistics into Internet sensations. In addition to his focus on the developing world and data visualization, the Swede happens to swallow swords. Ray Suarez reports.

	March 2, 2012 Deadly Tornadoes Symptomatic of Strong 'Transition Season' Weather Two Indiana towns were heavily damaged Friday as another round of deadly tornadoes raked the Midwest. Jeffrey Brown discusses the violent weather with Maj. Chuck Adams of the Clark County Sheriff's Department in Southern Indiana and meteorologist Greg Carbin of the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

	March 1, 2012 Coral Sex Just Got a Little More Interesting A team of Australian scientists has found that when exposed to turbulence, many coral embryos will break into genetically identical pieces, each with the ability to develop into its own fully functioning organism.



	FEBRUARY Feb. 28, 2012 When the Ocean Gets Choppy, Corals Clone A team of Australian scientists have that corals can clone in a similar way that humans eggs split to create identical twins.

	Feb. 27, 2012 The Healing Power of Music An unconventional approach to recovery and coping, music therapy is a field of medicine capturing new attention due to its role in helping Gabrielle Giffords recover from a gunshot. Correspondent Spencer Michels reports on the versatility of music in a medical setting, but the difficulty of quantifying its effectiveness.

	Feb. 27, 2012 Just Ask: Could Sonar Be Responsible for Cape Cod Dolphin Strandings? Nearly 180 dolphins have been found stranded this winter on the shores of Cape Cod.

	Feb. 23, 2012 Upper Big Branch Miners' Families 'Encouraged' by Prosecutors' Moves West Virginia mine safety officials on Thursday issued 253 violations against Massey Energy in their final report on the 2010 Upper Big Branch mining disaster that killed 29 men. Jeffrey Brown and NPR's Howard Berkes discuss the findings and prosecution efforts to reach higher into the ranks of Massey's upper management.

	Feb. 23, 2012 Ballots of Yore: A History Lesson in Voting Technology From clunky polling machines to the famous butterfly ballot, internet voting isn't the only ballot technology that's been fraught with problems. Political historian and curator William Bird provides us with a glimpse of various American voting systems through time and the problems they've encountered.

	Feb. 22, 2012 To Kill Parasites, Fruit Flies Self Medicate With Alcohol A new study published last week in the journal Current Biology shows that fruit flies infected by parasitic have the ability to self medicate, seeking out alcohol to kill off these parasites.

	Feb. 21, 2012 Climate Expert Assumed False Identity to Obtain Documents Fallout over internal memos that were leaked from the conservative Heartland Institute rattled the climate world again this week, when a climate researcher confessed to lying in order to obtain and distribute them.

	Feb. 20, 2012 50 Years Later, Astronaut John Glenn Recounts His Historic Mission in Space Fifty years ago, NASA astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, despite numerous glitches. Judy Woodruff and Glenn discuss how the historic mission changed the space race.

	Feb. 16, 2012 Internet Voting: Will Democracy or Hackers Win? While it seems like everything can be done online these days, that's not actually the case when it comes to elections. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien explores the security, logistical and secrecy challenges of Internet voting.

	Feb. 16, 2012 Marine Experts Flummoxed by Mass Dolphin Strandings Scientists and volunteers respond to stranded dolphins on the shores of Cape Cod.

	Feb. 15, 2012 Debating the Safety, Wisdom of New Nuclear Reactors in Georgia A construction site in Georgia is slated to house the nation's first new commercial nuclear reactors in decades. Jeffrey Brown discusses the controversial Plant Vogtle facility and the state of American nuclear power with Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Nuclear Energy Institute's Tony Pietrangelo.

	Feb. 14, 2012 Poet Tony Hoagland Explores Species' 'Romantic Moments' In honor of Valentine's Day, poet Tony Hoagland reads "Romantic Moment" -- a poem about a man and woman who have just watched a nature documentary on a date, and how their expressions of affection stack up against those of leopard frogs, chimpanzees, bull penguins and so on.

	Feb. 14, 2012 Broken Heart Syndrome: Yes, It's Real Broken hearts seem to be on the upswing these days. That's in strictly clinical terms: More doctors are diagnosing a condition that literally stuns the heart after a profound emotional shock.

	Feb. 13, 2012 Animated Map Plots One Year of Quakes We recently stumbled on this animated map that plots all of 2011's earthquakes that registered above magnitude 6. Each circle represents an earthquake -- the bigger the circle, the greater the magnitude.

	Feb. 9, 2012 Russians Drill Into Ancient Lake in Coldest Spot on Earth After decades drilling through more than two miles of ice in the coldest spot on Earth, Russian scientists announced this week that they reached their goal: a subglacial lake the size of Lake Ontario, which has been sealed off from the world for as long as 20 million years.

	Feb. 6, 2012 Hunter's Moons: Astronomers Use Kepler Spacecraft to Search for Exomoons Astronomers have discovered a trove of exoplanets--more than 700 worlds in orbit around distant stars, with leads on thousands of additional suspects.

	Feb. 2, 2012 In Earthquakes, 'Liquefied' Ground Can Topple Buildings, Swallow Cars On Wednesday's NewsHour broadcast, we aired an excerpt of a "NOVA" piece about a dense trove of ice age fossils found near Colorado's Snowmass Ski Resort. One theory is that these animals were snuffed out by a phenomenon called liquefaction, which can strike during an earthquake.

	Feb. 2, 2012 Facebook Moves to Sell Stock and Go Public Facebook, the place where 800 million people share photos, dating status, likes and dislikes, has taken the first steps towards becoming a public company, which means that soon anyone with enough cash can own a share of Facebook itself.

	Feb. 1, 2012 'A Flintstone Moment': Mammoth Amount of Ice Age Fossils Found in Colorado Wednesday's "NOVA" looks at an unexpected discovery near a Rocky Mountain ski resort: thousands of bones from ice age mammals, including mammoths, ground sloths and mastodons. Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Kirk Johnson of Denver Museum of Nature and Science about the dig and ongoing research into the animals' mysterious deaths.



	JANUARY Jan. 30, 2012 Hans Rosling Brings Life, Humor, Sword-Swallowing to Global Health Statistics Hans Rosling, co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation, visualizes global health trends and population numbers -- transforming dry poverty and development statistics into Internet sensations. In addition to his focus on the developing world and data visualization, the Swede happens to swallow swords. Ray Suarez reports.

	Jan. 30, 2012 Experts Weigh in on Bird Flu Research The Newshour asked three experts to weigh in on the bird flu research debate.

	Jan. 30, 2012 Electronic Tissue Monitors Brain, Heart and Muscles Scientists are trying to develop tissue-like electronics that conform better to human organs. Elastic electronics, they call it.

	Jan. 26, 2012 How Do You Spot a Black Hole? Look for Its 'Burp' Last week, a team of astronomers met in Arizona to discuss ambitious plans to see the unseeable. Using data pulled from a group of ground-based telescopes and assembled by a supercomputer, their plan is to capture, for the first time, an image of a black hole.

	Jan. 24, 2012 Solar Storm Swipes Earth, But No Immediate Damage On Sunday, a gigantic solar flare erupted from out of the sun and began charging toward Earth at millions of miles an hour. But so far, no major damage reported.

	Jan. 23, 2012 Marcia Coyle: Court Moves 'Carefully' to Balance Rights in GPS Ruling The Supreme Court's decision Monday -- saying police must have a warrant before attaching a GPS tracker to vehicles -- shows the court "wants to move carefully" in weighing the privacy rights of individuals against law enforcement's need for information in criminal investigations, according to legal analyst Marcia Coyle.

	Jan. 20, 2012 Bird Flu Studies Temporarily Paused, Journals Announce Last year, questions were raised over how much research on the dangerous H5N1 virus -- or avian flu -- should be published in scientific journals. H5N1 is not yet transmissible among humans, though scientists have created a strain that can pass between ferrets.

	Jan. 19, 2012 Rejected Keystone XL Pipeline Project at Top of Congress' Agenda House Democrats and Republicans picked up where they left off at the end of 2011, bickering about the creation of jobs or the lack thereof. President Obama rejected the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that Republicans said would create more than 20,000 jobs.

	Jan. 19, 2012 Darwin Fossils Released From Hiding In April 2011, Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleobotanist, was sifting through old collections in a poorly-lit storeroom at the British Geological Society, when he reached into a dark cabinet and pulled out a fossil with a signature that looked an awful lot like Charles Darwin's.

	Jan. 18, 2012 Rediscovering Charles Darwin Last spring, a British scientist reached into the back of a cabinet and pulled out a fossil with a signature that looked an awful lot like Charles Darwin's. Turns out it was. Here is a sample of the fossils, which include seeds, extinct tree samples and fungus crushed into glass panels.

	Jan. 18, 2012 Could Keystone Pipeline Plan Be Revived After Obama's Rejection? President Obama denied TransCanada Corp.'s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday, a project that would have carried oil 1,700 miles from the tar sands of Canada to refineries in Port Arthur, Texas. Hari Sreenivasan discusses the president's decision and the next steps with The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin.

	Jan. 18, 2012 SOPA Blackouts Reaction and Resources What pro- and anti-SOPA backers say about the SOPA/PIPA blackout day and five resources to learn more about it.

	Jan. 17, 2012 After Fallout of Fukushima, 'Frontline' Explores Nuclear Energy's Future NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien traveled to three continents to examine the safety and future of nuclear energy in the wake of last spring's Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan. In this excerpt from Tuesday's edition of "Frontline," O'Brien visits the Indian Point Power Plant in Buchanan, N.Y.

	Jan. 16, 2012 Tracking Firefighters Through the Smoke Locating a missing person inside a burning building filled with blinding smoke can be tricky and extremely dangerous.

	Jan. 12, 2012 Domain Names: Debating the Effects of a Dot-Anything World ICANN, the company that assigns what are called domain names for the Web is making a big change and rolling out a program to dramatically increase the number and kind of names available. However, that could prove to be a costly endeavor for some businesses. Ray Suarez leads a debate over the effects of the new rules.

	Jan. 12, 2012 Giant Galaxy Cluster, Blue Stars and Cosmic Explosions In the far-flung distant universe, 7 billion light years away, a super galaxy cluster has been discovered by an international team of scientists. It's the most massive, hottest, brightest galaxy cluster ever seen, and so astonishingly enormous that it's been dubbed El Gordo -- Spanish for "the fat one."

	Jan. 12, 2012 Galaxy Clusters, Blue Stars and Cosmic Explosions Skywatchers gathered in Austin, Texas, this week at the 219th American Astronomical Society meeting. Here's a look at some of the most exciting interstellar space findings, and the images that accompany them.

	Jan. 11, 2012 Shedding Light on Early Cancer Detection Vadim Backman, a biomedical engineer at Northwestern University is working to develop less invasive cancer detection procedures.

	Jan. 10, 2012 North Carolina Moves to Compensate People Sterilized Against Their Will Roughly 7,600 people were sterilized in North Carolina against their will between 1929 and 1974. A state panel voted Tuesday to pay the victims $50,000 each. Ray Suarez discusses the history of the program and the panel's decision with Charmaine Fuller-Cooper of the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation.

	Jan. 9, 2012 How Has Stephen Hawking Lived to 70 with ALS? An expert on Lou Gehrig's disease explains what we know about this debilitating condition and how Hawking has beaten the odds.

	Jan. 5, 2012 Honey, I Blew Up the Ants Researchers have found that with the right formula, they can induce otherwise normal ants to develop into a supersized version called a supersoldier. The finding was released on Thursday in the journal Science.

	Jan. 5, 2012 Ants, Supersized Researchers have found they can activate the development of supersized "supersoldier" ants. The study is published in the journal Science on Thursday. Here are some photos of pheidole ants, captured by biologist and photographer Alexander Wild, who studies the evolutionary history of insects.

	Jan. 4, 2012 Under the Sea Near Antarctica, 'a Riot of Life' Discovered in Super-Heated Water Scientists discovered many new species on the floor of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica -- something they're describing as a "riot of life." Jeffrey Brown speaks with former oceanographer Mark Schrope about the newest known species of sea life found around hydrothermal vents.

	Jan. 2, 2012 It's Not Mind-Reading, but Scientists Exploring How Brains Perceive the World It's not mind-reading, but some cutting-edge scientific research could reconstruct brain activity. Jake Schoneker, a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's School of Journalism, and producer Roberto Daza report.

	Jan. 2, 2012 Twin NASA Probes Circling Moon, Hoping to Answer Questions About Core On New Year's Eve, the first of two NASA spacecraft fired its engine and maneuvered into orbit around the moon, following a three-month, 2.5-million-mile journey. Its twin probe followed suit 25 hours later. The two washing-machine sized satellites are designed to map the surface and interior of the moon.